5 Things you didn't know about Blazing Blunderbuss

1. It was written as a NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo is a month where people all over the world write 50,000 words. I had been sitting on my latest series for almost a year (I know that doesn't seem a long time but I write 3 books in a year) and I needed something to kick start the novel so I set up to write it for National Novel Writing Month. I also wrote two of the short stories for Wyvern's Trim at the same time as Blazing Blunderbuss isn't a long novel.

2. Hara is named after Harimad from the Blue Sword.

The Blue Sword was one of my favourite books when I was growing up. A girl thrown into a world of magic only to find that she truly belongs there and that there is a king who loves her. The people there don't know how to pronounce her name so they call her Hari. So Hari became Hara and then when I looked up what Hara meant I thought it was kismet. I came up with the name the same time I did the title. Sitting in the staff-room at work with a work colleague who pretty much gave me the idea of Blazing Blunderbuss.

3. The dragons traveled through a blackhole to get to earth and the shapes they hold were of human beings alive at the time they traveled.

I like science and so when I write magic into my stories they tend to be vaguely based on science. The dragons were my favourite. They are actually scientists and don't believe in magic though the dragon hunters scare them because they seem to be magic. The dragons from a parallel universe much like our own except that dragons are the dominant species. To get to earth they figured out how matter can pop in and out of existence and followed it to a kind of place that isn't. Here is where all matter goes when it pops out of existence. They then entangle their atoms with these atoms to travel to a new universe. These new entangled atoms can take on the shape of whatever they entangled with. So the dragons take on the shape of humans and they routinely send parts of themselves to this place that is between existence. To have children though they have to completely phase into the Earth universe and out of their own Universe and to do this they again use entanglement. This time with atoms that are completely in the Earth universe. so they can still move to the place between but they can no longer go back to their own universe.

4. Rewritten history.

So, I mention that history has changed but the major change is that Robert the Duke of Normandy was eaten and his parents had a daughter. This daughter is sent as as a tribute to the dragons to stop. Her name is Catherine. She impresses the dragons with her wit and her courage. After all she is descended from vikings. At some stage the dragon's lair is attacked and she is taken hostage. She is tortured and beaten as a dragon sympathizer. Her dragon rescues her and in an attempt to save her life he entangles his own atoms with hers. He is able to do this as he and his brothers are the ones who found the way to Earth in the first place so understand the science better than the other dragons. His son becomes William the Conqueror who because he is the son of a dragon feels taking over just a small part of Europe and England is small potatoes he then takes on most of Europe. He wants to be the next Charlemagne.

5. Unwritten stories

I actually started this universe telling the story of the tinker who makes Angel. A dragon seeks her out because of her magnificent creations. I started writing it but it fizzled after the scene where they meet. I wrote a few others that were like this as well and they are in my collection called Wyvern's Trim and other stories. Though I'll be adding Harlen's story in there as well soon. When I wrote Blazing Blunderbuss i went at it in more of a logical way and I kept all the canon I had developed for the short stories. Maybe one day I will finally finish all the short stories I have in my head but not any time soon.